Hope for Today will inspire you to live a life connected to Christ by empowering you to fall in love with Jesus through personal spiritual growth. Teaching you the power of your identity and authority in Christ. Encouraging you in your inheritance as an ambassador for the kingdom of God!

Monthly Archives: October 2014

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up when the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worse that you must not quit.Unknown

Being a mom is the greatest blessing and job in the entire universe! I wouldn’t trade the trials, challenges and struggles we’ve faced in raising our lovebugs so far, though daunting at the time, because they have helped us grow as individuals, bond as a family and grow our faith and trust in God, knowing we can depend on Him for all things.

Our older two are one year two weeks, and according to our oldest, 1 day apart. They were 4 and 3 and a half when our littlest lovebug was born. I remember fondly the days when the middle seat, of our now retired Suburban, had one booster seat and two car seats lined up. In those days, a full night’s sleep seemed like a distant dream, these days horror mones are the cause of sleepless nights, but perhaps that is a story best left untold. Like clockwork, every night, one of them would wake up and make their way into our room and lay on the floor on my side of the bed, where I kept pillows and blankets, you know, just in case. Soon and as if the other two knew it was their turn, they too would end up next to their sibling and sleep the rest of the night snuggled up to one another. Just recently, I remembered those nights and wondered, “when did this season end?” The change happened so subtly it was as if it had always been that way. But my momma heart still holds onto those precious memories.

These days I look into the faces of you younger moms and I see the tiredness in your eyes or hear the cries of your little lovebugs and without you knowing it, I am silently cheering you on and praying for you! You can do this! The message you send your children with your perseverance is that you love them and you think they are worth all the tears, the crying, the struggles, the smiles, the accidents, the homework you don’t understand, and all the other challenges you may face by being called to the most important job ever.

One day your children will remember how you poured all your heart and then some into them and they will call you blessed.

Her children arise and call her blessed;her husband also, and he praises her:“Many women do noble things,but you surpass them all.” Proverbs 31: 28-29

Several mornings ago I was in that wonderfully blissful state in between slightly asleep and fully awake. I was spending some quiet time with my heavenly Papa, with thoughts and prayers floating through my mind like puffy white clouds gently moving across a beautiful spring sky. That’s when I heard, very clearly in my mind, the words “full metal jacket” and I saw a picture of a protective vest. No longer in that wonderfully blissful state, I was now fully awake.

Coming from a military family and being married to a man who use to sleep with his rifles on the floor in between his bed and the wall, one would think I knew exactly what a full metal jacket is. One would be wrong, I had to Google the term. A full metal jacket is a type of bullet that has a soft core and is encased by a harder metal on all sides except the bottom, which is exposed lead.

I began pondering what the Holy Spirit meant by full metal jacket and this picture of a protective vest. If this were a year ago, fear would have set in and I would be stressing about what the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me. This particular morning, however, it wasn’t caution I felt but a call to arms.

This morning as I was praying I heard the word, “gear up!” No, I didn’t have to Google this, I knew immediately the Holy Spirit was telling me to put on His full armor and be ready to ride. Then the Holy Spirit spoke these words to my heart, “My word is your full metal jacket, it is your vest of protection.”

Precious one, the Holy Spirit is telling us not to be afraid of current world events but to put on our full metal jacket. He is calling us to a season of intense abiding in Him through reading and studying his word, prayer, worship, praise and most importantly, living out his word through our life.

The Body of Christ is at war not in the physical realm, although that is the chosen battle field of the enemy, our war is waged in the supernatural, the spiritual realm of the heavenlies. The Holy spirit calls us to stand united in prayer, consistent prayer, over the atrocities we are witnessing. That anger you feel and the desire for righteous justice at current events, the Holy Spirit asks you to direct that at Him in prayer. Boldly ask Him to turn ALL hearts to him in repentance. Do you understand the power of prayer? Do you understand that God hears the prayers of his people and those prayers move the hand of God? Don’t ever underestimate the power of prayer. And, pray from a pure heart with God’s motives not your own.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7.

Back in the seventies there was a shampoo commercial that showed a young actress holding a bottle of shampoo and saying something to the effect of, “if you tell one person and they tell one person and so on and so on,” while the picture of her became a screen full the same small picture of her, conveying the image that it started with one person telling another and so on. It is the same here. I am telling you and if each of you tell just one other person, soon the entire Body of Christ will hear God’s call to gear up and put on your full metal jacket.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12.